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Les Claypool of Primus’ newest act TWANG-IFIED
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Les Claypool and Bryan Kehoe
By John Benson
Here Primus vision- ary Les Claypool comes again with yet another musical digression.
However, this time out it’s new act Duo de Twang, which the famous bassist describes as nothing more than getting “twang-ified.”
“Initially they offered me a big wad of cash to play the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival,” said Claypool, calling from northern California. “That’s always a nice incentive, but then it just became this fun thing. Just basically sitting down around a campfire with my high school buddy, drinking some cocktails, talking with the audience, cracking a joke and then playing a song or two. These performances are more like a hang than an actual show.”
The duo — also featuring Claypool’s childhood friend Bryan Kehoe — recently released its debut effort, “Four Foot Shack,” featuring traditional tunes (Johnny Horton’s “Battle of New Orleans” and Jerry Reed’s “Amos Moses”), popular covers (The Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive” and Alice in Chains’ “Man in the Box”) and Primus classics (“Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver” and “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver”).
Currently Duo de Twang is on the road with shows tonight at Mr. Smalls in Pittsburgh and Thursday at Kent Stage. Apparently Claypool wasn’t joking about the campfire. On stage the twosome sits around a faux glowing campfire that could find some overzealous fans trying to make S’mores.
“Not yet,” Claypool laughed. “And nobody has roasted their weenies on it either.”
Musically speaking, the spirit of the project is perhaps epitomized best with the “Saturday Night Fever” tune, which in an alternate universe comes across as something Elvis Presley could have performed unplugged at his “Comeback Special.”
Even though he admits recording “Four Foot Shack” was a laidback affair, Claypool said early on he had to train himself to play in the style of Tennessee Three guitar legend Luther Perkins.
“That was a little tough at first but once I got it, I was like now I can twang-ify just about anything,” Claypool said. “As far as playing a lot of these progressions, I was in a band when I was younger for a few years playing real biker bars, Hell’s Angels bars, up and down northern California. We’d play a lot of old blues, R&B and some country stuff. So that element came easy.”
When asked which audiences were tamer — the Hell’s Angels bars from decades ago or the current theaters and clubs — Claypool answered nowadays there’s more alcohol being consumed at the twang shows.
“Sometimes they get uppity but we don‘t have mosh pits,” Claypool said.
As for how the Duo de Twang fits into his future career plans, Primus recently returned from Australia with more festivals booked for this summer, Claypool stressed his days of major label machinations and high expectations are over.
“I’m beyond thinking about my career,” Claypool said. “It’s not like I’m building anymore. I’m this guy. I come around and do these different things and there it is. You either like it or you don’t like it, and you come or don’t come.
“It’s not like there’s big publicity campaigns going on behind all of these things. It’s just, ‘OK, here he comes again. What’s he got?’ So, this is what I’ve got.”